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Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Google AdSense is the current leader in content-sensitive web-based marketing. Webmasters can place Google AdSense JavaScript code on their web pages in order to allow Google's servers to show context sensitive advertisements (Google Adwords). The left hand side of this page shows an example of a Google AdSense skyscraper displaying a text or image ad.

Google's terms and conditions are very strict such that many web publishers cannot use AdSense adverts on their sites. They are either denied from joining the Google AdSense program in the first instance, or in a situation that is becoming more and more common do not wish to do business with Google. A number of publishers are also finding their AdSense accounts are being disabled for reasons that are completely beyond their control. The problem is that most of the alternatives to Google's AdSense are pretty useless.

Has your adsense account been disabled? Then try these top 10 alternatives.

AdBrite, is currently one of the best alternatives there is to Google's AdSense. While they do not offer the same large selection of ad formats that Clicksor and Google AdSense provide you they do offer the most commonly used ones. In addition they offer inline page links with have some great Click through ratios as well as interstitial full page ads which offer an excellent way to monetize all traffic to your site not just traffic that Clicks on your ads. Their payouts are also very competitive. They have more relaxed terms and conditions than AdSense and are much more accepting of smaller publishers including bloggers.

Bidvertiser can be a useful alternative to Google and offer some intriguing ad formats including what they refer to as free design. This lets you specify the look and dimensions of your text ads. While a useful feature I have not investigated how well it works but imagine that while it sounds good on paper it could result in lower priced ads being displayed. I.e. most advertisers will probably want to keep control of the layout of their ads and so turn off support for Free design ads.

A relative newcomer to the scene Infolinks specializes in In-Text Advertising. That is it indexes your page looking for keywords and phrases that are not currently links and converts them into advertising links. When a user places their mouse over the link a box opens up showing the ad. If they click on the link you get paid. It is very simple and works very effectively. The nice part is that you can use Infolinks to compliment an existing advertising campaign on your website. For example you can show banner ads with AdBrite or Bidvertiser and show text links with Infolinks. Or you can even show text links with both AdBrite and Infolinks together on the same page to maximize your revenue.

Infolinks claims to be leading the industry with the most relevant in-text advertising links and the highest revenue share - guaranteed. I am not sure how they 'guarantee' this but having used them for several months I can attest that their payouts are indeed good compared to other In-Text advertising options.

For advertisers and media buyers, Chitika is a proven channel for targeting on-line consumers and qualified buyers. For all publishers, Chitika is an easy-to-use platform for earning daily ad revenue. If you visit a site showing Chitika's ads from a search engine then the Chitika premium ad unit kicks in showing you ads that are specific to your searching - otherwise you can have it show an alternative ad provider, such as AdSense, or you can just have it collapse away to show nothing.

Clicksor is one of the current leaders of the small publisher AdSense competition. They have payouts up to a market leading 85% and unlike a number of alternatives the cost per click bid values are high enough that you can earn a decent income. They are also, in my experience, much more tolerant than Google. Their terms and conditions suggest that you should only place one copy of their code on a page but as long as you only place a single pop-up or DHTML code on a page they seem happy to let you place many context sensitive ad blocks on a single site.

AdToll pays on a CPC basis. Their user interface is great and navigating through the user panel is both easy and pleasant. Payments are available via Cheque, PayPal, ePassporte and Wire/Bank Transfer. It is also possible to use the revenue you earn as a publisher to advertise your website further. Such integration is something that is entirely missing from Google's adsense-adwords.

Yahoo is currently playing catch up to Google and is trying to release their own context sensitive advertising service. This promise to be an excellent alternative to Google AdSense but in reality is likely to be a simple copy with the same restrictive terms and conditions as Google, including $100 minimums on payouts. The system seems to have been in beta test for several years now, perhaps explaining why Yahoo as a company is suffering. Unfortunately while you can visit their site and sign up to register for an account doesn’t expect to actually hear back from them. They are either extremely selective or are simply not accepting new publishers and advertisers, either way they won't even bother to get back to you to let you know this and most applicants won't even receive a reply saying their application has been rejected. Thus until it goes live and it becomes clear what type of website owners Yahoo will be targeting I cannot place it any higher in this list.

I really loved infolinks, it pays great amount and it doesn't follow strict conditions as google does. Moreover it help your blog/website be as it is, unlike those banner ads who just make your site look like a crap.

Many of you must have tried some or the other of the above alternatives. I would like to hear from your experience.